Soldiers Fire More than 80 Shots into Car Carrying Family in Rio

Man riding in his the car with his family was killed

Rio de Janeiro

Ten army soldiers have been arrested for the murder of the musician Evaldo Rosa dos Santos, 46, in Rio de Janeiro. Santos died after the army soldiers fired 80 shots into the car he was riding in on Sunday Guadalupe, a neighborhood in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro.

The five people in the white Ford Ka were headed to a baby shower. The musician died at the scene, and his father-in-law, Sérgio Gonçalves, was admitted to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Santos’ wife, the couple's seven-year-old son, and a family friend were not hit and survived. A pedestrian at the scene was injured trying to help.

Evaldo Rosa dos Santos, musician killed by the army in Rio de Janeiro
Evaldo Rosa dos Santos, musician killed by the army in Rio de Janeiro - Reprodução/Facebook

The army is in charge of the investigation, but investigator Leonardo Salgado of the Civil Police Homicide Office said there is no indication that the occupants of the car were bandits or that they had reacted erroneously to the approach of the military. The civil police conducted the on-site investigation and found more than 80 shots; no weapon was found with the occupants of the vehicle.

"There is every indication that there was a shooting of the vehicle of a good family who was headed to a baby shower, a totally disproportionate and unjustified action,” the investigator said.

Videos posted on social networks show residents of the region criticizing the military shortly after the shots.

"They killed a family, they got the wrong guys, the two have gone," says one person who recorded the end of the shots.

Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

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